David Gamble

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1103
11/7/2016
Roid Rage: How Steroids in Baseball Enraged America
It was almost ten years ago when it happened. The most prestigious record in all of sports
had been broken by a man named Barry Bonds. He was in the twilight of his amazing career, an
astounding forty-three years old. He had entered the league as a rather trim outfielder for the
Pittsburgh Pirates, but eventually, and literally, transformed into a home run-slugging
juggernaut. When Bonds played for the Pirates in 1991, he weighed 185 pounds (Fox). By the
year 2000, his body had changed drastically. He gained almost fifty pounds over that time span.
Before he hit an insane total of seventy-three home runs in 2001, he had never eclipsed fifty in a
single season. Bonds was an excellent player prior to this mysterious weight gain, but became
the best afterwards.
I remember waking up the morning after and being absolutely devastated and furious that
Hank Aarons record had been broken. One of my fathers favorite players as a kid was Hank
Aaron, and he is still my favorite player that I never got to watch. It wasnt just my sentimental
value of Hank Aaron that made Bonds 756th home run sting so badly. It was the fact that Bonds
had cheated to do it. At nine years old, I didnt completely understand all that was going on with
Bonds. I didnt know what obstruction of justice or perjury was. I just knew that he cheated. I
remember going to school the next day and being furious with my friends that did not categorize
steroids as cheating. They brought up the idea that you still have to be able to hit. Some even

denied that he used steroids at all. At the time, it was shocking to me that someone could really
think that using steroids wasnt cheating.
Every sports fan has an opinion on steroids in baseball. Some will reject the idea of
taking steroids with a passion like 76-year-old former minor leaguer named Tex Warfield:
Bonds? I'll cry when he passes Ruth. I'll cry when he passes Aaron. This is the biggest bunch o'
bullcrap ever to come down the pike" (qtd. in Smith). Some will welcome the use of steroids
with the thought that it brings more excitement to a sport that is considered boring by many and
is slowly losing popularity. I found this quote from a 101-year-old former Broadway actress
named Frances Wormser very intriguing: "Baseball's wonderful," she says, "but it's a stupid
game. A player sits there for God knows how long not doing anything--and then he's supposed to
get up and hit a home run? So I'm sure all of them have been taking something But there's
nothing anybody can do. I love the game. I'll put up with anything" (qtd. in Smith).
The dilemma of steroids in baseball is deep and filled with scandals, lies, federal
investigations, and many tarnished reputations. All of these outcomes shed a negative light on
the game and hurt the integrity of baseball in the eyes of many fans; however, there were some
positive effects of steroid use such as reviving the shortened 1994 season in which there was a
strike (The Steroids Era). These controversies occurred throughout the late 1990s and up to 2010
in a time defined as the Steroid Era. There is no specific start or end to the Steroid Era, but it is
widely accepted that it began in the late 1980s and ended after 2010. Since then, not much has
happened except for a few suspensions here and there due to a very refined testing protocol.
Until 2003, Major League Baseball (MLB) did not test the players for performance enhancing
drugs or steroids (The Steroids Era). This neglect and leniency allowed for a widespread use of a
variety of performance enhancing drugs, including several of the games best and most popular

players. Names like Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, and the aforementioned
home run king, Barry Bonds, were all involved in scandals during the Steroid Era. All of these
players enjoyed great success during their respective careers and are all considered talented
players; however, their integrity has been brought into question due to various reasons.
The largest and most well-known scandal involving steroids in baseball came about when
The Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO), a nutritional supplement firm, was
investigated in August of 2002 by federal agents after being suspected of distributing steroids to
athletes. The three big names in baseball that were involved with BALCO are Barry Bonds, Gary
Sheffield, and Jason Giambi. Bonds and Sheffields cases are different from Giambis because
Giambi confessed to a grand jury that he knowingly took steroids provided by Greg Anderson,
who was a trainer and had ties to BALCO. On the other hand, Bonds and Sheffield similarly
confessed to using the products given to them by Greg Anderson, but added that they were not
aware that they were steroids. One would think that Jason Giambi was reprimanded by the MLB
right away; however, this is not the case. Giambi never tested positively for the human growth
hormone or steroids that he confessed to taking during the 2002 and 2003 seasons. This was also
the case for Barry Bonds. Since the results of Bonds, Sheffields, and Giambis hearings were
not released publicly until a year later, the league did not take action in disciplining them at the
time. The BALCO scandal was a slap in the face and a wakeup call to commissioner Bud Selig
and other executives. Although the federal investigators and the USADA eventually sniffed out
what was going on, Victor Conte, the owner of BALCO, and his accomplice Greg Anderson had
made fools out of league executives and a mockery of the MLBs drug testing protocol in the
process.

Gary Sheffield did not face any more allegations after his stint with BALCO, but the plot
only thickened for Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi. After the initial testimony, Bonds side of the
story became very convoluted and drawn out. Over the next four years, Bonds repeatedly denied
his use of any illegal substance. Countless reports were spewing out of news outlets during this
ongoing investigation describing what types of steroids Bonds was using, or what he had said to
someone in his inner circle. In December of 2004, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that
Bonds actually admitted to using steroids referred to as cream and the clear whereas a year
earlier he had testified in front of a grand jury that he did not know that they were steroids. He
was still under investigation by federal agents, as well as Conte and Anderson, and was
constantly scrutinized in the media. Here is a quote from Bonds from March 2005 that many
think proves he used steroids: "You're talking about something that wasn't even illegal at the
time. All this stuff about supplements, protein shakes, whatever. Man, it's not like this is the
Olympics. We don't train four years for, like, a 10-second [event]. We go 162 games. You've got
to come back day after day after day. ... There are far worse things like cocaine, heroin and those
types of things" (Barry Bonds Steroids Timeline). He never said that he willingly used steroids,
but many fans believe the stance he took in this interview tell the truth as to whether he
intentionally used steroids or not. Later that month, his supposed former girlfriend, Kimberly
Bell, was called upon by prosecutors to testify on the subject of Bonds and his steroid use. She
told the grand jury that Bonds admitted to her that his elbow injury in 1999 was caused by his
use of steroids. Days after Kimberly Bells testimony, a variety of popular news outlets reported
that investigators were beginning to look into whether or not Bonds lied to the grand jury in
December of 2003. It seemed like something new was added every other day to the narrative.

This had become a nationwide controversy that encapsulated not only sports news outlets, but
world news stations, tabloids and others (Barry Bonds Steroids Timeline).
Over the course of 2006, boatloads of evidence was released against Bonds claims. The
book Game of Shadows exposed Bonds in a detrimental fashion, detailing his jealousy of Mark
McGwires seventy home runs in 1998, and how that propelled him into the use of steroids. The
book also laid out exactly which steroids Bonds used which included: the cream and the
clear, which he confessed to, as well as insulin, cow steroids, Mexican beans, and described
in great detail his use of human growth hormone for which the league did not test for until 2013.
ESPN The Magazine used a quote by Bonds from the book Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds
and the Making of an Antihero by the author Jeff Pearlman. He allegedly said this over dinner
at Ken Griffey Jr.s home: "I had a helluva season last year, and nobody gave a crap. Nobody. As
much as I've complained about McGwire and Canseco and all of the bull with steroids, I'm tired
of fighting it. I turn 35 this year. I've got three or four good seasons left, and I wanna get paid.
I'm just gonna start using some hard-core stuff, and hopefully it won't hurt my body. Then I'll get
out of the game and be done with it" (qtd. in Barry Bonds Steroids Timeline). After these two
pieces of evidence came out, a federal grand jury had called Bonds private surgeon, a San
Francisco Giants trainer, as well as Greg Anderson to testify, and the investigation of whether or
not Bonds committed perjury in his initial testimony had almost fully commenced.
Most news outlets, reporters, journalists, and authors seemed as if they were out to get
Barry Bonds at this point. It was very evident that the investigators felt a strong moral obligation
to try to indict and eventually convict Bonds for perjury. Many baseball fans shared this
sentiment as they wanted the game to be clean and for all players to be on an equal playing field.

On November 15, 2007, just three months after breaking Hank Aarons all-time homerun
record, Barry Bonds was indicted by a federal grand jury on four counts of perjury and one count
of obstruction justice (Barry Bonds Steroid Timeline). Of course, Bonds and his attorney
appealed and the trial was delayed four years. It seemed as if the fans against steroid use would
never see Bonds receive justice for his actions. The jury became deadlocked on the four counts
of perjury, but he was convicted of obstruction of justice. The obstruction of justice charge
stemmed from Bonds misleading testimony in which he attempted to move away from the issue
at hand by talking about his fathers fame (AP). Bonds was then sentenced to thirty days of
house arrest, two years of probation, and 250 hours of community service. Bonds and his
attorney then appealed the sentencing, and it was stayed until 2015 when a federal appeals court
overturned the last charge Bonds had against him. The judge ruled that Bonds rambling about
his father was not obstruction of justice because he eventually answered the prosecutors
question (Dolan). After over a decade of investigation, the federal government wound up with
nothing.
Barry Bonds story is by far the most controversial one of the Steroid Era. Ask someone
random: Do you know of anyone that used steroids in major league baseball? Odds are, they will
say Barry Bonds. The decade-plus long investigation was all over every sporting news outlet
whenever a new piece of evidence leaked or something new came out about the trials. I chose to
aim my focus on Bonds case because this is the one that drew the emotions out of baseball fans.
In other words, this is the one that got them going.
A very intriguing argument that many sports writers, and fans alike, have strong opinions
on is whether Bonds and his alleged steroid-using peers should be inducted into the Hall of Fame
or not. One argument, presented eloquently by Rob Neyer, brings into question the cleanliness of

the Hall of Fame in its current state. Theres a quaint and lovely fiction, maintained largely
through a great collective silence, which maintains that somehow every player with a plaque in
Baseballs Hall of Fame is clean. Oh, everyone whos paying attention, at all, does know that
various Hall of Famers drank during Prohibition, or were hooked on cocaine in the 1970s and
80s, or were hopped up on amphetamines for ... well, for decades. And everyones okay with
that, Neyer states firstly in his article. He presents a very viable argument that challenges the
ethics of the Hall of Fame. He, as well as many of his peers, think of steroids as a lesser or equal
detriment to the game of baseball than said alcohol or drugs. For example, Bob Nightengale
expresses with great zeal that we gave no idea who was clean and who was not clean during the
Steroid Era. He states that the Hall of Fame voters have elected drug abusers, racists, and
murderers in, so inducting Bonds, Clemens, and other alleged juicers should not be a problem.
For example, Tim Raines received 69 percent of Hall of Fame votes this year, only missing by
six percent. Tim Raines was a seven time all-star and three-time World Series champion, but also
a well-documented cocaine user during his playing years. He even testified in court that he kept
cocaine on him during games. Compare that to Barry Bonds, arguably the greatest player since
Babe Ruth, who only garnered 44 percent of Hall of Fame votes in the same year (Hall of Fame
Ballot History). The general consensus among longtime baseball fans is that the elite sluggers
and pitchers of the Steroid Era that were caught deserve to be in the Hall of Fame just as much as
their peers who were not caught.
In 2005, Major League Baseball became very popular in comparison to previous years.
Some thought that the juicing allegations and scandals would hurt the leagues popularity and
damage its reputation, but in the grand scheme of things, it did not. It turns out that ticket sales,
endorsements, and sponsorships all increased during this time of controversy. As documented by

Richard Sandomir in his New York Times article titled Baseball Is Booming Despite Talk of
Steroids, advance ticket sales were up 6.5 percent and total revenue was projected to rise 40
percent that season. The exponential growth in ticket sales in 2005 makes it very evident that
most fans were willing to look past the scandals. Former deputy commissioner of baseball said it
best here: If youre a fan, youre a fan, and youre willing to overlook and forgive all the other
nonsense (qtd. in Sandomir). That same year, the MLB landed two very large sponsorship deals
with General Motors and the delivery service, DHL that netted them $83 million. All this growth
that the league was blessed with did not come without scrutiny, though. A poll ran by AOL and
AP released on April 4th, 2005 listed the high salaries of players as the most significant issue in
baseball with a vote of 33 percent. Steroid use came in second at 27 percent. The only catch: 55
percent of voters noted that steroid use in baseball is an important issue (Sandomir). The bottom
line is that most baseball fans in America were bothered by the scandals and steroid use. Its just
that those same fans are passionate about baseball to the extent that they will overlook said
scandals and still enjoy their favorite sport.
After having researched the topic of steroids from a historical and social perspective, it
has only left me more curious than I was beforehand. The depth that each separate instance of
steroids in baseball contains was marveling to me. Before beginning my research, I thought for
sure that the popularity of baseball would have taken a nosedive after the Steroid Era. I myself
thought of steroids as cheating and refused to accept it, but after doing research on the topic, I
realized there are other, direr, hiccups in the timeline of baseball that have been overlooked by
many. This realization has caused me to alter my personal stance on steroid use in baseball.

Works Cited

AP. "Barry Bonds Says He Wants to Start Serving Sentence." USA Today. Gannett Satellite
Information Network, 13 Sept. 2013. Web. 02 Dec. 2016.

"Barry Bonds Steroids Timeline." ESPN.com. ESPN, 7 Dec. 2007. Web. 09 Nov. 2016.

Dolan, Maura. "9th Circuit Overturns Barry Bonds' Last Remaining Conviction from BALCO
Case." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 22 Apr. 2015. Web. 02 Dec. 2016.

Fox, Maggie. "Bonds Weight Gain Used as Steroid Evidence by Many." Reuters. Ed. Will
Dunham and Philip Barbara. Thomson Reuters, 16 Nov. 2007. Web. 09 Nov. 2016.

"Hall of Fame Ballot History." Baseball Reference. Sports Reference, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2016.

Neyer, Rob. "Yes, There Are Already Steroids In Here." Fox Sports. Fox, 1 Jan. 2015. Web. 3
Dec. 2016.

Nightengale, Bob. "Hall of Fame PED Hypocrisy Must End." USA Today. Gannett Satellite
Information Network, 06 Jan. 2015. Web. 03 Dec. 2016.

Sandomir, Richard. "Baseball Is Booming Despite Talk of Steroids." The New York Times.
Science in Context, 5 Apr. 2005. Web. 3 Dec. 2016.

Smith, Gary. "What Do We Do Now?" Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated. 28 Mar. 2005. Web.
18 Oct. 2016.

"The Steroids Era." ESPN.com, ESPN, 5 Dec. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.